The federal agency that investigated the Chevron fire in Richmond in 2012 is racked by dissension over how to overhaul the nation's refinery inspection efforts in reaction to the blaze, and now Congress is getting involved.

After a leak in a corroded oil pipe at the Richmond refinery set off the August 2012 fire, Moure-Eraso said California should lead the way in adopting a more stringent inspection model used in Europe and elsewhere.

California regulators conducted minimal inspections at the Chevron plant in the decade before the fire, which prompted 15,000 people to seek medical treatment for breathing problems and resulted in a months-long partial shutdown of the refinery.

Moure-Eraso clashed with the safety board's other two members over the proposal, however, and the agency's Chevron report seeking reforms of the industry in California has been on hold since January.

Call to resign

Moure-Eraso is under attack on other fronts as well. Last month, Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of Vista (San Diego County), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, urged him to resign in response to charges ranging from whistle-blower retaliations to refusal to cooperate with government probes to a lack of "collegiality" at the 40-employee agency.

"I really believe it's time you go," Issa told Moure-Eraso at a hearing of the oversight committee.

Some Democrats joined in the criticism, including the panel's ranking Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, who told Moure-Eraso: "It seems like the fingers are pointing at you. Exactly how do we get this agency to functioning?" Moure-Eraso testified that he knew of no employee "who may have lost his or her job, grade or any pay as a result of complaints." And he noted that the vote on the Chevron report was the only one in recent months in which all three Chemical Safety Board members did not agree. "So the work of the board is getting done," he said.

Criticism 'chilled'

However, a former member of the board - who resigned in May, just a year after Obama appointed her - testified that constructive criticism is "chilled" inside the agency. "The level of dysfunction reached such a level and I had no hope of it improving, so I left," Beth Rosenberg said.

She said internal critics were "marginalized and vilified" and viewed by Moure-Eraso as disloyal. In an e-mail, she declined to comment further.

Her resignation left the safety board with just two members. There were already two vacancies on what is supposed to be a five-member board.

The turmoil leaves unresolved the question of what the safety board will recommend that California do in reaction to the Chevron fire.

California, meanwhile, is pushing ahead with its own new regulations and has hired more inspectors to monitor the oil industry more closely. The federal safety board can issue only recommendations to federal and state agencies, not orders. Yet its reports are often cited by advocates pushing for change.

Risk to public

"No chemical safety initiatives are going forward," he said. "The plans are getting older; the kind of conditions that led to the Chevron Richmond explosion are going to become more prevalent."

Moure-Eraso wanted California to adopt an oil-refinery inspection regime similar to those in place overseas.

Australia and several European nations mandate that oil refiners constantly seek to use the safest available technology rather than rely on static regulations. In contrast, in California and other states, regulators respond to accidents and complaints, and issue citations if they find violations of government standards.

The U.S. model, the safety board's staff concluded, is too reactive and has been ineffective at preventing accidents.

Proposal tabled

Moure-Eraso, however, was outvoted in January by Rosenberg and safety board member Mark Griffon, who called for more study and tabled the matter for six months.

A day after the vote, Moure-Eraso sent an e-mail to Rosenberg and Griffon, calling the delay a "serious drawback" that amounted to "siding with the worst and most unfair critics" of the safety panel.

Issa's committee staff seized on that e-mail as an example of Moure-Eraso's domineering style. Rosenberg testified that all she had done was raise "questions about the lack of data supporting a recommendation to restructure safety regulation of the nation's oil refineries."

"We were portrayed as delaying the report, disrespecting the investigators, and, quote, 'siding with the worst and most unfair critics' " of the Chemical Safety Board, she said.

The safety board's four investigators backed Moure-Eraso, saying in a memo to the board in February that tabling the report caused "significant damage to the morale of the investigative personnel."

The investigators also said that not long after Obama appointed her in 2013, Rosenberg privately told several people that she wanted to replace Moure-Eraso. Griffon, they said, had urged them to slow down investigative work to keep Moure-Eraso from looking good.

'Out of control'

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said the memo was a sign of a "staff that's out of control. This is about a dysfunctional culture. This is about lack of leadership at the top, Dr. Moure-Eraso. This is about a board not doing its job, and a staff substituting itself for the board."

Rosenberg told the House committee that after the Chevron report was tabled, "there was a lot of hostility in the agency." She called the memo "appalling."

Griffon did not return calls seeking comment. In a statement submitted to the House committee, he said a hostile environment at the safety board had led to attrition and a backlog of cases.

Chevron influence?

In their memo, the safety board's investigators said tabling the report was the work of "outside political influence," including Chevron, which they said had hired former safety board chairman John Bresland to lobby against the findings.

The inspector general overseeing the safety board said he would investigate whether Bresland had violated a two-year ban on former board members lobbying the agency.

Bresland, who was on the board at the time of the Chevron fire, said in an interview, "I don't believe I violated any of the regulations. We'll have to wait and see what the inspector general does."

Chevron executives issued a statement denying that they had done anything improper. They said they believed Bresland had checked with safety board ethics experts before becoming a consultant for the company.

"When advocating his concerns about the (Chevron report), John made his relationship to Chevron known," said Braden Reddall, a company spokesman.

In an interview, Moure-Eraso said his agency has felt the "long arm of Chevron" as it called for reforms.

"I'm really surprised the (congressional) hearings did not focus on the quality of the product that the agency has produced," Moure-Eraso said. "The product speaks for itself. I stand by the work that our people have done and am really proud of what we have produced."